Episode Notes
As you consider expanding your business to the United States, are you asking the right questions to set yourself up for success? The United States is a great place to do business with a diverse population, a strong economy, and a government that is friendly to foreign investors.
However, with 50 different states, hundreds of counties and cities, the U.S. isn’t one homogenous nation. U.S. tax regulations and laws can be complicated for a foreign business executive trying to decide where to establish their business. And consumer spending habits and tastes often vary by region.
Working with local business consulting services and conducting proper strategic planning enables non-U.S. business owners and entrepreneurs to determine the best place to establish their businesses and begin selling. Should you incorporate in a tax-friendly state and start selling in a city where there’s already competition? Or, do you begin where there’s market demand but little competition as Belgium-based Renson, creator of healthy outdoor living spaces?
For his book Make It in America: How International Companies and Entrepreneurs Can Successfully Enter and Scale in U.S. Markets, our guest Matthew Sawyer spoke with 100+ companies in 40 countries, and presented fascinating case studies on how some companies succeeded, while others failed.
Our interview highlights several case studies, including Hyundai’s introduction to the U.S. in 1986 as a low-cost, high-quality automaker, to the high-end German window producer, Menck Fenster which totally misread the U.S. market when they entered in 2015 (later pulling out in 2017).
Guest: Matthew Sawyer, Author of Make It in America: How International Companies and Entrepreneurs Can Successfully Enter and Scale in U.S. Markets, Professor (Columbia University, New York University), Managing Director of Rocket Market Development, LLC.
Here’s more on how to enter the U.S. market successfully — along with tips, insights, and company case studies of key successes and failures to learn from:
Background reading:
- Excerpt from Make it in America: How International Companies and Entrepreneurs Can Successfully Enter and Scale in U.S. Markets with a spotlight on India-based MintMedia and their U.S. market-entry story.
- Many a U.K. business has found it impossible to resist the allure of the U.S. — often with less-than-ideal results. Retail group Marks & Spencer’s ill-fated acquisition of the preppy clothing brand Brooks Brothers, which it sold in 2001 for a third of the amount it paid for it 13 years earlier, is one of the clearest examples of how it can go wrong. But there has been no doubt that as the urge to grow fuels expansion plans, there will be still more to come.
- Doing your homework, strategic planning, and having data to drive your expansion decisions is key. Read Factum Global’s 5 Tips on Entering New Markets.
- Sawyer’s inspiration for writing Make it in America. (1 min. video)
